After only a few short months, I had to reprioritize things and return back to my old duty station where Katie is still serving…and 36 weeks pregnant. Today was my last day at Amazon. Our initial plan looked pretty solid but things can change, and nobody needs to fall in love with their plan so much to blindly continue to follow it when you know the outcome can no longer be reached.

While leaving an amazing company like Amazon, who has such high hiring standards, was a hard decision, it’s not a complete loss. This was our first real adventure into corporate America and I learned quite a bit including:

1) Amazon is full of awesome people and has a great culture. This should put all other service members at ease when making the big leap. The comradery you seek, you’ll find it there.

2) Big data, technology, processes that I have never seen before. The way that Amazon conducts its business with relentless focus on the customer – it’d blow your mind. I learned a great deal about how data driven analytics are used, how technology is used….it was an eye-opening event. This was probably the greatest lesson I learned. All my time in the Corps was at the operational level and we never used tools like this. I wish we did now.

So, what’s next? Another baby any day now. After that, it’s back to the drawing board factoring in Katie’s great career options, new locations for us to move to, and another search for me. Never a dull moment.

To the building and team I left at BWI4 in Clear Brook, VA, good luck with Prime day just a few days away and eventually peak ’18. I know y’all will be successful.